“I have never saved so much money before”!

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“I have never saved so much money before”!

As a Buzz Gelathi, Ganga Bhairamma of Bhayadarahalli took up the role of being a friend and a guide to the other trainee-women of Buzz. We want our Buzz Gelathis to first start bringing change in their own households so that they know that change is possible and then they can become role models for other women. For this, we give a piggy bank, which we call ‘Hundi’, to every Gelathi.

Ganga took to this new habit of saving money in a hundi very enthusiastically. She started saving money by reducing all her unnecessary expenses. Be it grocery expenses, vegetable purchases, clothes where ever there was a chance to save, she would save and deposit the money into her Hundi. At least 50% of the money that her husband gave her for household expenses reached the Hundi.

The hundi started filling up fast but Ganga did not keep track of how much was getting saved. After six months, when Diwali came, she decided to open the Hundi thinking that she could buy some gifts for the festival. She opened, counted, and was absolutely stunned. She couldn’t believe what she saw. There was so much more money than she imagined – a whopping Rs 25,120!

“I have never saved so much money before”! she exclaims. A 55-year-old Aanganwadi teacher, Ganga Bhairamma never thought she had the capacity to save so much, or even the fact that she earned enough to save so much. She bought herself a beautiful gold chain with this saved money, something that she’s really proud of.

This experience has made her a crusader for saving money in her village. Ganga is inspiring all her friends to start saving. After a blockbuster of a start, her Hundi is getting filled for the next year’s Diwali. We wish her an even bigger surprise!